Helper advertised here ripped me off

After realizing my calls were going direct to voice mail, I'm afraid I've made a $400 donation to one of the helpers advertised here.


She came to our house for an intervew 10 days ago. Everything went great, she liked the kids, helped me out a bit, said Yes, she'll work for us starting the next day (lost our helper suddenly), everything was fine. We live in the New Territories, so I gave her travel costs for that day plus enough for a taxi the next day from the Island. $400 total. Next day, her current employer says she misunderstood and is still needed to stay on in her current job.


I express regret for the misunderstanding, suspect that possibly she just didn't want to live so far out, which is fine, but wish that she'd just been honest about it. Anyway...


Employer kindly offers to send me a check for the $400 I'd given her. Have yet to hear from either of them.


I was completely honest about where we lived, I gave her the directions, no surprises. She never asked if I'd cover her travel expenses for the interview. If she had, I would have said ok. But that still leaves $300 I'd like to have back for the taxi ride that never happened.


Does AsiaXpat have anywhere other than this forum that I can lodge a complaint against someone who's advertising their services on this site? Has she done this to anyone else? She was keen to ask us for the money, which we were happy to provide, thinking she'd be a member of our household soon.

Sorry to hear about this.


We however don't have a 'Ombudsman' section on the site... reasons are indicated here: http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/rules.asp

You may get a cheque if you are lucky, maybe held up in the post or something, but you should never have taken her for a one day 'trial' without knowing much about her, or given her money, it is not the done thing. She may have just been working on her day off to find 'greener pastures' and do this regularly.

Interveiw prospective helpers formally, ask them questions to try to find our how they would handle certain situations with children/ are they safe and can handle children properly.

Try to get recommendations for helpers from people you know, maybe they are leaving Hk, you are more likely to get an honest one who can really do all the things you require.

It will be worth your while to wait, take your time, interveiw as many as you can and be really choosy to find the ideal helper for you, less problems in the future, and remember you have to live with this stranger so you have to be compatable.

You're not alone. Our situation was a little different. We live on Lantau Island and it's only 1 hour into Central and costs no more than $20. We paid our $200 to have a month's access to helpers phone numbers. Made some calls, interviewed a bunch (in Tung chung and Mui Wo to make it easier for them) and then invited the one we liked the best (and she was hyper enthusiastic about us) to our house at our expense and paid her $200 for a 2 hour trial (too generous I know but we didn't want her to think we're stingy). She liked us, we liked her. She had a great manner with our kids and liked the house and the area. Plus, when you have one day off a week to go out with your friends, does it matter if it's 30 mins or one hour away??


We signed paperwork and all said we were looking forward to her starting when she finished her contract in 2½ weeks from that point.....


....fast forward to a week later, she sends us a text message saying she's decided to go back to the Phils to work in the family business...no other explanation, no apology.


We then call the other 3 helpers who we agonized over not hiring and they of course have all already signed with other people and then we find that our $200 subscription has expired....so we just yesterday paid another $200 to access the helpers profiles again and we're starting from square one.


It's very frustrating when you have 2 small kids and have plans laid out and then get stuffed around.

Nevermind! Got the check in the mail today, thank goodness!


Trying to delete thread, but no luck so far...